GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Army Reserve Col. Jim Boersema talked with Sgt. Ingrid Hendry yesterday at Shafter Flats.
Reserve unit gets
Schofield call-upLocal soldiers prepare for new
assignments related to the Iraq war
Army Reserve Sgt. Ingrid Hendry could have easily sat out the latest call-up of reservists because the Army Reserve unit she normally works for cannot be activated until it receives a new transport ship later this year.
Instead, she volunteered and decided to send her two children to her parents in Fort Worth, Texas. Her ex-husband, with whom she shares custody of their children, will go to Iraq as part of the 25th Infantry Division.
"I did it because this is my duty," said Hendry, a member of the Pacific Army Reserve for nearly seven years. "I want to do my part. I did not join the Army just to sit around. I want to ensure that my children have all the freedoms my grandfather fought for in World War II.
"After 9/11 it is even more important. I want to ensure that my children continue to have those freedoms."
Hendry became yesterday one of the newest group of local reservists and Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers to be pressed into active duty. She is a member of the 1101st Garrison Support Unit that was mobilized yesterday. Members were filling out forms at Shafter Flats before reporting to Schofield Barracks. The unit is not scheduled for overseas duty.
This morning, 130 soldiers of the Army Reserve's 411th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) were to arrive from Hilo and Maui to join other members of their unit from Oahu, Alaska and Guam to prepare for their year-long deployment to Iraq. A total of 540 Army reservists, under the command of Lt. Col. Jonathan Wung, will spend at least a month at Schofield brushing up on their combat skills before joining the 1st Armored Cavalry Division in Iraq.
Tomorrow, 200 members of Charlie Company of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 193rd Aviation also will report to Schofield Barracks as they mobilize and prepare for their Iraqi mission. The Hawaii Army National Guard flight crews, administrative personnel and fuel loaders will be augmented by National Guard soldiers from Ohio. When the 193rd deploys to Iraq later this year, they will take all of the unit's 14 CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Sgt. Lourdes Garcia helped Spc. Samuel Burchetts fill out a new W-4 IRS form yesterday as he prepared for a year of active duty with the Army Reserve's 1101st Garrison Support Unit.
Col. Jim Boersema, who has commanded the 1101st for the past year and a half, said he was not surprised when his unit was alerted on Dec. 6.
"This unit evolved after Desert Storm," said Boersema, a Vietnam veteran who has been in uniform for 33 years. "It was one of the lessons learned from that war. The Army created garrison support units to fill in after a division leaves."
Boersema, who in civilian life is a partner in the public relations firm of Starr Seigle Communications, said 96 of the 160 members of his unit have been mobilized. For the next several months, the job of the 1101st will be to help prepare the 411th and the 193rd for their deployments, Boersema said.
"After that, our job will be to augment the garrison at Schofield Barracks after the division goes to Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.
Pvt. 1st Class Leto Dacquel, who normally works as a federal police officer, said he was prepared. "I just thought it was going to be a lot earlier with everything that was going on," he said.
In the 1101st, Dacquel holds a similar job as a military policeman.
Spc. Samuel Burchetts, normally a reserve military policeman who will be driving trucks and buses, also anticipated the call-up. "Once we knew that Schofield was being deployed," said Burchetts, who runs a pawnshop in Wahiawa, "I knew there was a possibility our unit would be activated because of our mission."
Burchetts, 31, said his pawnshop will take "a big hit" with so many soldiers on deployment this year. "I'll lose between 20 to 30 percent of my business," he said, since many soldiers seek loans between paychecks.
Hendry, who has combined active and reserve service of nearly nine years, said, "With the long hours I expect to be working and the mission of this unit, I didn't think it would be fair for my children not to have parents or for them not to be able to spend quality time with them."
The 4,800 soldiers with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, including Hendry's husband, will begin a year-long deployment to Kirkuk in northern Iraq later this month. An additional 5,700 Schofield soldiers from the 3rd Brigade will be sent to Afghanistan in March and April.
